sports

American football...

Conventional wisdom about American influence in Panama is often not very wise at all. While many supposed that with the end of US military bases and the definitive transfer of the Panama Canal to Panamanian control at the end of 1999 all vestiges of American culture would be either dying or dead, that's far from the case.

One example of just how wrong that notion was can be seen in the healthy state of American football here. We have several leagues, from little league to university level, and with the addition of a team from Colegio La Salle to the league organized by the Kiwanis Club, there will be five teams of high school kids on the isthmus, more than there ever were during the days of the old Canal Zone. We have an American football fan about to assume the Panamanian presidency, whose eldest son is said to be quite the budding football star.

And one of the old Canal Zone football traditions lives --- the season-opening Jamboree, wherein each team in the league plays a quarter against each other team. That will be happening at Balboa Stadium on Sunday, September 5, starting at 3 p.m.

The spectacle that is American football usually involves two sports. Cheerleading is, after all, a distinct and legitimate athletic pursuit in its own right. There will be that at the Jamboree as well.

Also in this section:
Panama's soccer squad loses in El Salvador
Panamanians in Major League Baseball
Interscholastic American football jamboree

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